Thompson - The Murders and Survival of Molly Southborne

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Egan - The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

 

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan is exactly what it says on the tin! He looks at the history of the Great Lakes and tracks the changes in the ecosystem, through waves of invasive species and other human interference. It’s about catastrophe, recovery, and the ways that the largest bodies of fresh water on Earth are still in peril.

It feels difficult to provide even a very incomplete synopsis of the book because it covers many topics, from engineering to agriculture to sport fishing, and all the ways they have affected our relationship to the Great Lakes, but mostly I found it interesting as a lesson in unforeseen consequences. We don’t know the limits of our own knowledge, and it’s absolutely wild to me, reading past accounts, how many people took the abundant resources for granted, or didn’t consider how easy it is to accidentally introduce destructive species. (Or...even deliberately, like the release of bighead and silver carp from a state hatchery. When their research dried up, they just released the fish because ‘the fish were so difficult to breed under even precise hatchery conditions that nobody thought there was any chance that the carp would be able to breed on their own in the wild.’ Like just. Whoa.)

Also, the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. Multiple times. Which...I was vaguely aware of from high school history, but still remains wild to me.

I found this book interesting, but also admit it’s not one I would have picked up on my own if it hadn’t been discussed on Science Friday!

Snowflake Challenge #8: Fanwork Recs!

Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Welp!!!! I have a whole bunch of bookmarks on AO3, plus a tag just for fic recs! I know it skews things to whatever I read most recently though, so here are some prime fanfics that are a little bit older.

No Bed of Roses by montparnasse is the first Jack/Miranda fic I ever read and it just. It shook me with a vast and inchoate longing for more. I love how messy and raw they are with each other, I love the slow transformation of mutual friction sparking into mutual passion, I love the little pieces of background character dynamics with the rest of the crew and I love how raw and sensual it is. And now that I've recc'd it, I'm going to have to read it again.

And Wolves Beneath Their Seams by cyprith is a slowburn F!LW/Charon fic and was the first longfic I ever read, as well as the first fic that ever made me reconsider the Charon character dynamics. It still resonates with me because of the use of language, both stark and lovely, and how much it pried into the world as presented to the player/character compared to what the game tells us we should think. This is the story that really got me into writing fanfic, not just reading it, and thinking about the characters extending beyond the canon.

To be seen, feeling by stonestrewn is the Josephine/Vivienne fic of my heart, the thing I feverishly flail for, the thing that encapsulates everything I love about this ship and their dynamics and the sheer swoony romance of two very sensible women having their own insensible moment as they fall in love and just. The final scene where Vivienne duels for Josephine's hand? Just. MWAH.